JVNR: 'Language Just Doesn't Matter'

South Korean producer Jun Roh on setting out on a world tour all alone, writing songs in English and learning how to play Indian instruments

- Riddhi Chakraborty

OUR FIRST MEETING WITH Jun Roh happens complete-ly by chance. We decided to head to the Mumbai leg of the annual New Wave Asia Festival in October 2017 and the initial draw was Japanese electronic producer Hibari’s punk aesthetic. Once we got there however, Roh— who goes by the stage name JVNR—ended up being the standout performance of the night. The South Korean artist started off easy with synthwave and breathy vocals but grabbed our attention when he pulled out a guitar and ripped into a piercing rock solo we didn’t see coming.

I meet him a couple of days later for a quick conversation and while it’s all very rushed—he has to catch a bus to Goa the same night—it’s pretty fun. Roh is soft-spoken but sharp as a tack, often making witty comebacks and subtle references to pop culture. He learned classical guitars while living in New Zealand as a child, but considers grunge pioneers Nirvana his biggest influence. “Kurt Cobain moved my life,” he says. “So since I was around 13, I wanted to be like that. I started to earn some money doing part-time jobs and got an electric guitar. Then I finally learned to play some real music.”